living in the city

Do you like Bucharest? A spanish guy asked me a few years ago, while I was kayaking on the Danube. No, without hesitation in my voice. Strange, he replied, this is the 39 time I ask someone living there this question, and I always get the same answer. Another friend, moved in western europe, asked me a long long time ago if I am happy in Bucharest, I said no, so she asked why not move?

During my childhood I had a double life. kindergarten and school in a small city, holidays at the grandparents in the countryside. Each time I was brought back from the country side I started crying.

So now as an adult I tried to reconstruct some of the countryside happiness, a place with an orchard, flowers, dirt, grass, birds, stones, snails, worms, clouds and night stars. It is so refreshing. Still, at the countryside, I got surprised and scared about missing Bucharest.

Is it the comfort I got used to that I was missing? In time, as the countryside comfort grew, I got it that it was not that. It was something else. The people mostly, but not only that. If i compare Bucharest with a bee hive or an ant nest, I was missing the wonderful structures the collective has build for it’s own delight. So a little late in my life I got it, how blessed I am to live in a space where people have put so much work in building public shared spaces for everybody to enjoy, that are impractical to have, if they do not have a high enough number of users.

The olympic swimming pool, on top of my list. The running track on the athletics stadium. The sports coaches and their followers. The quiet streets with beautiful old buildings, that I enjoy on a late walk or bike trip. The good restaurants. The kebab. The market with fruits and vegetables from all over the world. The yoga classes. The facebook events. The dancing clubs. The coffee shops. The 3D cinemas. The pizza. The theaters and concert halls. The sushi. The coworking hubs. The bakeries. The relieve that this list is every day changing, that events and places bloom even in the coldest of winters. So yes, now I really like big cities. And I wish Bucharest was a better city to live into, as it has his construction flaws. And hope that people living here will work and fight for making this place better, as it has his big big problems, compared to other european capital cities.